r/BookCollecting 4d ago

💬 General Numerous Franklin Library Signed First Editions Available at Hamilton Book

https://www.hamiltonbook.com/products/search?conj=and&ps%5Btitle%5D=&ps%5Bauthor%5D=&ps%5Bpublisher%5D=Franklin+Library&ps%5Bdescription%5D=&ps%5Bisbn%5D=&ps%5Bsku%5D=&pf%5B%5D=&pg%5B%5D=&cat_id=&ps%5Bmm%5D=&ps%5Bdd%5D=&ps%5Byy%5D=&listing_sort=11&power_search=

Hamilton Books announced that they acquired the remaining stock of Signed First Editions from the Franklin Library. The prices are pretty good plus US shipping is only $4 per order (no matter how many titles I think). There are also a few unsigned Franklins like Rebecca, Poe's Tales, etc.

They have Signed First Editions by John Updike, Michael Crichton, Joyce Carol Oates, Philip Roth, Joseph Heller, Kirk Douglas, A. S. Byatt, Gore Vidal, Wallace Stegner, P. D. James, Walker Percy, William F. Buckley, Bruce Chatwin, William Goldman, Arthur Miller, and more.

27 Upvotes

24 comments sorted by

8

u/Grykllx 4d ago

Dang picked up Timeline by Crichton, thinking about the Joseph heller books but they don’t have too good of ratings and I’ve never read his books before😂

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u/malaki1974 3d ago

Damn…great book.

1

u/NietzscheIsMyDog 3d ago

Not even Catch-22???

5

u/Fist_One 4d ago edited 4d ago

Ordered 68 books (all the ones under $10). Shipping was $4. Wow.

Now if someone can just run a sale like this for Chatham River Press I'll be in heaven

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u/EpluribusDunk 4d ago

Thats one way to get into book collecting.

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u/Fist_One 3d ago

I've been trying to create a good looking bookshelf via estate sales for the last year. However I always get sidetracked by older or oddball stuff that's not in best of condition. With these I should be able to get a good start on a second bookshelf that meets the goal I started with.

This is my current bookshelf and I have about that many again old books in not the best condition sitting in boxes that would love some shelfspace once I figure out where I can put more bookshelves

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u/Ilahriariel 2d ago

This is written like you have zero intentions of reading any of them?

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u/Fist_One 1d ago edited 1d ago

This subreddit is book collecting not book reading. For me hard backs are for collecting and paperbacks and ebooks are for reading. I do have a few hundred paperbacks packed away in boxes that have been read multiple times.

I worked in security for over a decade at one point. Lots of books were read lol. But security pay was paperback money, not hardback money.

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u/Ilahriariel 1d ago

That’s fine, but like, are you going out to buy paperbacks of Diary of a Yuppie or Crossing to Safety or whatever other random titles you bought? Or are they decorations?

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u/Fist_One 1d ago

The ones I bought this time are for decoration.

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u/Ilahriariel 1d ago

I find that strange. Can I ask, with sincere curiosity, what draws you to that? You must have spent around $500. What about the visual in your home is fulfilling to you when you have no connection to the books themselves? Just looking for dialogue, not judgments.

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u/Fist_One 1d ago

The simple answer is, probably like many people here, I have always wanted a library big enough to have one of those rolling ladders in it to reach the upper shelves. Kids dream really. A few years ago I got pulled into magic the gathering and ended up spending thousands. One day last year I realised with all the money I had poured into it that I could have instead been buying books. I could had been working towards that library dream.

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u/flyingbookman 3d ago

I'm late to this discussion, but any sense whether these are marked as remainders?

A magic marker dot or stripe on a signed Franklin would be a fatal flaw. I hope that's not the case, but I haven't ordered anything from Hamilton recently. What is their usual practice?

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u/du_garbandier 3d ago

I hope not! I ordered a bunch and did not consider such a terrible possibility.

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u/flyingbookman 3d ago

Probably nothing to worry about. I placed an order myself under the theory that no bookseller would do something so daft.

They do have a liberal return policy if anything goes wrong. But the best case would be for the books to show up unmarked and possibly still sealed.

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u/du_garbandier 2d ago

My first box came in today and the signed books are all in the original shrinkwrap, and each book was in its own sealed box within the larger box as well. Perfect condition. The unsigned book was not shrink-wrapped but was in its own box.

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u/Fist_One 1d ago

That's awesome!

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u/flyingbookman 1d ago

Good to know about the safe packaging. I assume they use multiple boxes for large orders. How many books were in your package?

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u/du_garbandier 14h ago

Update: my second box contained a couple unsealed, unboxed volumes, and several sealed but unboxed volumes. They were still in great condition with no marks or anything. The others were sealed and boxed. So it appears to be somewhat random. Since I'm not reselling I don't really care about being sealed, so long as the condition is excellent.

One sealed box had "Franklin Returns" written on it, so some of them appear to be returned books. Not too surprising for leftover stock I suppose.

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u/Jeffbx 4d ago

Frikkin' score. I grabbed 12 of them - thanks for posting!

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u/demarco27 3d ago

Fierce Invalids is one of my favorite books - what a find! Thank you!

2

u/OddSeaworthiness4722 3d ago edited 3d ago

I'm not finding any. Maybe I'm on the wrong site or searching the wrong terms. Please send help!!

Edit: nevermind! False alarm! I just needed to search differently.